Reading Hard Science

READING AN ACADEMIC TEXT

MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN KEPRIBADIAN I Glass, in one form or another, has long been in noble service to humans. As one of TERINTEGRASI

the most widely used of manufactured materials, and certainly the most versatile, it can be as imposing as a telescope mirror the width of a tennis court or as small and simple as a marble rolling across dirt. The uses of this adaptable material have been broadened dramatically by new technologies: glass fibre optics - more than eight million miles - carrying telephone and television signals across nations; glass ceramics serving as the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth; tiny glass beads taking radiation doses inside the body to specific organs; even a new type of glass fashioned of nuclear waste in order to dispose of that unwanted material. On the horizons are optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of light - pulses from tiny lasers - rather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibres, not copper wire. These machines could function hundreds of times faster than todays electronic computers and hold vastly more information. Today fibre optics are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ever before - even bacterial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. It is the surge in fibre optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the US glass industry to building new plants to meet demand. But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra-modern. Consider the simple light bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a days pay for the average worker. In effect, the invention of the ribbon machine by Corning in the 1920s lighted a nation. The price of a bulb plunged. Small wonder that the machine has been called one of the great mechanical achievements of all time. Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes. The glass sags through the holes and into waiting moulds. Puffs of compressed air then shape the glass. In this way, the envelope of a light bulb is made by a single machine at the rate of 66,000 an hour, as compared with 1,200 a day produced by a team of four glassblowers. The secret of the versatility of glass lies in its interior structure. Although it is rigid, and thus like a solid, the atoms are arranged in a random disordered fashion, characteristics of a liquid. In the melting process, the atoms in the raw materials are disturbed from their normal position in the molecular structure; before they can find their way back to crystalline arrangements the glass cools. This looseness in molecular structure gives the material what engineers call tremendous formability which allows technicians to tailor glass to whatever they need. Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and building designers test their imaginations with applications of special types of glass. A London architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic buildings using molecular chemistry. Glass is the great building material of the future, the dynamic skin, he said. Think of glass that has been treated to react to electric currents going through it, glass that will change from clear to opaque at the push of a button, that gives you instant curtains. Think of how the tall buildings in New York could perform a symphony of colours as the glass in them is made to change colours instantly. Glass as instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant. As for the glass changing colours instantly, that may come true. Mike Davies vision may indeed be on the way to fulfillment.
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READING COMPREHENSION I.

MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN KEPRIBADIAN Answer the following questions. Your answers should be based on the information TERINTEGRASI

in the above text. 1.

In your own words, say briefly what the whole text is about.

2.

What are the topics of the following paragraphs? Paragraph I: Paragraph II: Paragraph III: Paragraph IV: Paragraph V:

3.

How are the future use of fibre optics different from the present one?

4.

Describe the stages of the production of light bulbs using the Cornings ribbon machine.

5.

How might architects use glass in their design in the future? Give examples in your answers.

II. Say whether each of the following statements is TRUE or FALSE. In either case, explain your answers. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. In the world of medicine, one of the many uses of glass is in giving radiation to the internal organs of humans. Although computers using glass fibres are much faster than the electronic ones, they cannot hold as much information as the electronic ones. Glass can be shaped into any forms because its molecular structure is loose. The best title for the text is : The Advantages and Disadvantages of Glass Referent Words. What do the following words/phrases refer to? a) this adaptable material in line 4 refers to ...... b) that unwanted material in line 9 refers to ........

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MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN d) one in line 21 refers to ......... KEPRIBADIAN TERINTEGRASI e) in this way in line 27 refers to .........

c) these machines in line 12 refer to ............

f) they in line 36 refer to ............ g) their in line 38 refers to ..............

Matching Match the words/phrases in Column A (taken from the text) with their meanings or synonyms in Column B by writing the letters on the space provided. A ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ versatile to dispose of vastly surge plunge puffs rigid to tailor opaque instantly a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. B dark, nontransparent quick blast of wind or air hard, inflexible immediately flexible, adaptable To make or shape for special purposes to get rid of decrease sharply considerably larger increase

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Reading Hard Science

MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN KEPRIBADIAN Fill in the blanks with the corrects words/phrases from the list. Each word/phrase should be used TERINTEGRASI once only; and two words/phrases are not used.

II. VOCABULARY

show windmills power analysis available utilizing

much higher efficiency purposes suitable proposed effective

A study to investigate the feasibility of using wind energy for generating electricity for household in a remote area was made by a team of engineers from the University of Singapore. The study found that the wind speed in that region was _______________ for the operation of _______________. In the offshore islands, the power available is ________________ than that in the mainland. In the former, _______________ may be generated for about 80 percent of the time. The team said that the

_______________ design method and its verification with model tests _______________ that it can be used with confidence to design a windmill of fairly high _______________ with known

characteristics. Cost _______________ also shows that the windmill can be profitably used for household _______________ and irrigation. In conclusion, the prospect for _______________ wind energy in that region is good.

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Reading Hard Science

READING AN ACADEMIC TEXT PENGEMBANGAN

KEPRIBADIAN A. TERINTEGRASI

MATA KULIAH

Read the text carefully Water-related diseases are human tragedy, killing millions of people each year, preventing millions more from leading healthy lives, and make development efforts ineffective. About 2.3 billion people in the world suffer from diseases linked to water. Water-related diseases which vary substantially in their nature , transmission, effect and management can be organized into three categories: waterborne diseases, water-based diseases and water-related vector diseases. Millions of people suffer from infections that are transmitted by vectors insects or other animals capable of transmitting an infection, such as mosquitoes and tsetse flies that breed and live in or near both polluted and unpolluted water. Such vectors infect humans with malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, sleeping sickness, and filariasis. Malaria, the most widespread, is endemic in about 100 developing countries, putting some 2 billion people at risk. In sub-Sahara Africa malaria costs an estimated US$1.7 billion annually in treatment and lost productivity. The incidence of water-related vector diseases appears to be increasing. There are many reasons: people are developing resistance to antimalarial drugs; mosquitoes are developing resistance to DDT, the major insecticide used; environmental changes are creating new breeding sites; migration, climate change, and creation of new habitats means that fewer people build up natural immunity to the disease; and many malaria control programs have slowed or been abandoned. Lack of appropriate water management, along with failure to take preventive measures, contributes to the rising incidence of malaria, filariasis, and onchocerciasis. Construction projects often increase the mosquito population, as pools of stagnant water, even if they exist only briefly, become breeding grounds. For example, in West Africa an epidemic of Rift Valley fever in 1987 has been linked to the Senegal River Project. The project, which flooded the lower Senegal River area, enabled the type of mosquito that carries the virus to expand so much that the virus was transmitted to humans rather than remaining in the usual animal hosts. The solution to water-related vector diseases would appear to be clear eliminate the insects that transmit the diseases. This is easier said than done, however, as pesticides themselves may be harmful to health if they get into drinking water or irrigation water. Also, many insects develop resistance to pesticides, and diseases can emerge again in new forms. Alternative techniques to control these diseases include the use of bed nets and introducing natural predators and sterile insects. In Gujarat, India, for example, an important part of an integrated project to control disease vectors was breeding guppies fish that eat mosquito larvae in bodies of water, while eliminating the use of insecticides altogether. An inexpensive approach to controlling insect vectors involves the use of polystyrene spheres floating on the top of bodies of static water. Because the spheres cover the surface of the water, the mosquito larvae die from lack of air. Another way to control the vectors is species sanitation using biological methods and habitat management to reduce or eliminate the natural breeding grounds of the
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disease vectors. Such methods can include: filling and draining unneeded bodies of MATA KULIAH stagnant water; covering water storage containers; eliminating mosquito breeding PENGEMBANGAN sites by periodically clearing canals and reservoirs. Also, integrating education KEPRIBADIAN about disease prevention into health services and encouraging community TERINTEGRASI discussion of prevention would help people to control vectors and to identify and eliminate breeding sites which are difficult to find.

I.

Answer the following questions by basing your answers on the information given in the text. Explain briefly what the whole text is about.

1.

2.

Explain in your own words how people can suffer from infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

3.

Why have efforts to prevent the widespread of these infectious diseases failed?

4.

Explain in your own words how the Rift Valley Fever came into existence.

5.

Why is it difficult to destroy the vectors that transmit the diseases?

6.

Fill in the boxes with techniques that have been taken to control infectious diseases.

No. a.

technique

how to perform the technique

b.

c.

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MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN KEPRIBADIAN TERINTEGRASI

d.

e.

Participation of the community

identify and eliminate breeding sites

7.

Which of the seven paragraphs can be joined together and be given one sub-title? What is the suitable subtitle for the joined paragraphs?

8.

What are the topics of the remaining paragraphs? (Paragraphs which are not included in the above subtitle). Give the topic for each paragraph.

II.

Say whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE. In either case say why.

9.

One of the reasons why less developed countries cannot develop its economy rapidly is because of the spread of infectious diseases.

10.

People living near unpolluted water are likely to be protected from any infectious disease because vectors, the disease transmitters, cannot grow in such waters.

11.

The availability of construction projects may endanger people living in its surroundings because considerable supply of fresh water is used by the projects.

12.

Controlling the spread of infectious diseases includes conducting health service trainings for the community.

III.

What do the following words/phrases refer back to? a. such vectors in line 9/10 refers to .. b. they in line 23 refers to c. this in line 30 refers to d. they in line 31 refers to . e. these diseases in line 34 refers to

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Reading Hard Science

MATA KULIAH

IV.

Match the words in column A with the synonyms or meanings in column B, and fill PENGEMBANGAN in the blanks with the chosen letters. KEPRIBADIAN
TERINTEGRASI

A _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ substantially (line 4) endemic (line 11) sites (line 17) abandoned (line 19) incidence (line 21) stagnant (line 23) emerge (line 33) predators (line 35) habitat (line 43) draining (line 44) a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. Stopped

not move or flow natural home of animal Considerably Arise animals that kill or eat others a place (where something important happens) flowing the water away from something disease always present among a particular group of people occurrence, bad event

V.

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the following list: thirst scarcity growing source however approaches risk current faster survive

Freshwater is emerging as one of the most critical natural resource issues facing humanity. As the year 2050 ____________________ , the worlds population is expanding rapidly. Yet there is no more freshwater on earth now than there was 2,000 years ago, when the population was less than 3% of its ____________________ size. Water is, literally, the source of life on earth. The human body is 70% water. People begin to feel ____________________ after a loss of only 1% of bodily fluids and

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MATA KULIAH PENGEMBANGAN ____________________ for only a few days without freshwater. Yet, in a KEPRIBADIAN TERINTEGRASI ____________________ number of places people are withdrawing water from rivers,

____________________ death if fluid loss nears 10%. Human beings can

lakes, and underground sources ____________________ than they can be recharged unsustainably mining what was once a renewable resource, as one researcher puts it. Currently, 31 countries mostly in Africa and the Near East face water stress or water ____________________ .

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